


The Beard

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: I fucking love Nosh ok?, M/M, beard, jealous!niall, obviously, sensitive!niall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-21
Updated: 2013-02-21
Packaged: 2017-12-03 03:53:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/693803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niall isn't jealous. Really. He just wishes she would move away and stop talking to and touching and generally being near his boyfriend so that he can kiss him to show that Josh belongs to him. OK, so maybe he's a bit jealous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beard

**Author's Note:**

> Based off a prompt on Tumblr:
> 
> Josh gets a beard-girlfriend so no one will know about him and Niall. He spends a lot of time with his new 'gf' so Niall gets jealous and stuff. And sad because he want the world to see that Josh is his and he want Josh to show him off like he now shows the girl off in front of the press people.

Niall glared at the beautiful girl on the sofa next to him, feeling intensely jealous of the arm she had wrapped around the most gorgeous boy he had ever met. How dare she be able to run her hands through his hair, and whisper god-knows-what in his ear? What could she possibly be saying that was so funny?

He knew it was ridiculous to be thinking this - after all it wasn’t as though this Julia was the love of Josh’s life, she was just a stand-in, an accessory, a beard, whatever you wanted to call it. And yet sometimes, just sometimes, he couldn’t help feeling intense amounts of hatred towards the poor girl who had no idea what her presence in their lives was doing to him. It had been a long day and all he wanted was to curl up with his boyfriend to watch the Dublin vs. Wexford match, but instead she was here ruining the moment with her fawning over Josh.

Yes, thought Niall wearily, it had been a fucking long day…

***

“Guys you need to get in the car now!”

Liam was stressing as usual as he yelled at Louis and Harry to get a move on. They were about to set off for a major television interview and could not afford to be late, so the rest of the band were already piled into the vehicle. Whilst Zayn checked his hair for the umpteenth time that morning, Niall had his head resting on Josh’s shoulder while the older boy tapped away at his phone with the same precision that he demonstrated whilst using drumsticks.

“Watcha doin’?” he asked light-heartedly, expecting a reply along the lines of ‘Angry Birds again’, but to his surprise Josh coloured, turning the screen so that it wasn’t visible from where his boyfriend was sitting.

“Nothing,” he muttered in a tone of voice that was part secretive, part embarrassed.

After a bit more pestering from Niall, he finally sighed and revealed what neither of them wanted to hear. “I’m tweeting Julia,” he said quietly, keeping his eyes firmly on the pixelated screen. At that Niall snatched the phone from him and began to read the text that was visible. Josh quickly wrestled it back due to his superior strength and build, but not before the younger boy had comprehended the love-filled messages that had been written there.

“You’ve been writing this… to her?” he began, but fell silent when Josh turned away stonily, hand squeezed around the Samsung.

“Get off it Ni!” he snapped, and then continued much more quietly. “Do you think I want to do this?”

They didn’t speak for the rest of the journey.

***

The studio lights were burning hot and Niall had started to have enough of the interviewer’s banal questioning. All he wanted to do was stare at Josh throughout the fake laughter and screaming fans in the audience that made up most of their TV appearances, but management had warned him about acting ‘too homosexual’ beforehand - whatever that was supposed to mean.

“So, Niall, Harry, still no ladies in your lives?” the brunette opposite asked them with a plastic smile, and he felt himself tense up. As much as he wanted to be able to come out to the public he still got paranoid whenever the idea of his sexuality was mentioned.

Nodding slowly, he was about to try and move the conversation onto other topics when Harry said something totally thoughtless.

“No, not yet, but our drummer’s got himself a girlfriend!”

Niall felt his insides turn to ice at the words that he’d knew would have to come one day but had been dreading. Of course they had to get the new out there in order to squash the gay rumours (although none of the band members were quite sure why they weren’t allowed to be anything other than straight in the public eye) but somehow saying it aloud made it all too real. The audience ‘ooohed’ teasingly, and he could almost feel Josh blushing behind him – whether for effect or out of embarrassment for the idea of dating anyone other than Niall he didn’t know. Niall didn’t want to look and check his boyfriend’s face; he was too busy trying not to cry.

***

Josh wasn’t usually present at One Direction’s interviews, but this time they were scheduled to perform at the end so their whole band needed to be there. It was a mostly acoustic set-piece, however, so Niall had taken the role of guitarist. The crowd screamed ridiculously loudly all the way through their most popular songs but as he broke into the chords for ‘I Wish’ they quietened down and there was an anthemic quality to the song as they began to sing.

Niall loved this song - in fact it was probably his favourite one on the whole album - and despite the ticking off he knew he was likely to receive from his management as a result he couldn’t help but keep his eyes permanently fixed on his boyfriend whilst they played together in perfect synchronisation. He wanted to somehow express telepathically the deep levels of emotion he felt towards Josh, and the only way he could do that (as was the story of his life) was through music. His brother would probably have called that _a load of bullshit_ and told him to _man up and get rid of the girl_ but he’d always been the sensitive, artistic one.

As he thought this, the chorus was coming up and he joined in with the rest of his best friends.

“But I see you with him, slow dancing,” Josh had his head down but Niall desperately wanted him to look up so that he could convey his feelings which the lyrics were making even more poignant. “Tearing me apart, cause you don’t see. Whenever you kiss him, I’m breaking.”

This was it, Niall’s big solo which had been allocated to him due to Liam’s sore throat. The drums and guitar dropped to allow the audience to hear every word…

“Oh how I wish that she was me.”

Shit! There was no way he just sang that in front of a studio audience on live TV! The track ended and the applause began, but he knew he’d cocked up. The only upside would be if his clumsy miss-sung lyrics had been enlightening at all to the one person they’d been aimed at.

***

On the way home from the television studio, the boys talked excitedly about a film premiere they were due to attend the next day for a much hyped action movie. Niall was equally pleased with the invitation and relieved that everyone seemed to have forgotten his mistake in the performance.

“We can each bring a plus 1,” Liam revealed with his signature large grin plastered all over his face. “I’m gonna bring Danielle, but take a mate if you want.”

Zayn nodded and turned to the youngest member.

“It’s a pity you can’t bring a partner, Harry,” he began, and they all sensed a new terrible joke coming up. “But unfortunately Louis is somehow part of this band already!”

Both Harry and Louis smacked him playfully at that while Niall and Josh smiled along.

“You can come with me if you like,” Niall stated amicably, already planning what to wear on what would be their first date in front of paparazzi cameras, but Josh unexpectedly shook his head.

“I can’t I’m afraid. I’ve got to go on a ‘date’ with Julia at some fancy restaurant so the papers can take some pictures of us ‘together’.” There was a reassuringly contemptuous look on the Josh’s face but no amount of air speech marks could stop Niall’s heart from dropping.

“Oh. Right,” was all he could think of in reply, and though he hated to be thought of as a sulker he genuinely couldn’t summon up any more words towards his boyfriend as they travelled back to Josh’s apartment where he was staying temporarily.

***

Julia had turned up soon after they arrived back, adorned with looks so good even a gay man like Niall could notice and a box of chocolates. The distinctly awkward atmosphere had been counteracted by sitting themselves down to watch a crap movie that went partway towards relieving the tension. Unfortunately it also meant that Niall was now squeezed at one end of the sofa whilst his boyfriend curled up to someone who he thought he wasn’t meant to give two shits about.

Julia wasn’t stupid: she knew what her role was within the band and their relationship, and at times even seemed a little sorry for Josh’s clearly jealous and frustrated partner but there wasn’t much she could do. And though he knew he was reading far too much into the purely platonic gestures and exchanges between them, Niall couldn’t help but worry that maybe Josh would end up falling in love with her after all and he’d be left alone again.

As much as he came across as happy-go-lucky, tNiall still had issues with rejection which he presumed must have originated at some point in his childhood and may well have been the reason for his emotional attachment to music. As he obsessed over their every movement, the film came to a close and the Julia stood up stretching.

“Well it’s been great Josh but I’ve got to go now I’m afraid,” she smiled, leaning down to kiss his cheek amicable. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

They all said their goodbyes and the Josh showed her to the door. The moment they’d left the room, Niall felt the tears that had been threatening to overcome him all day well up in his eyes and he gave up on any notion of control. Fat salty droplets rolled down his cheeks as he began to sob, when suddenly Josh was in the room with him.

“Nially, what’s wrong?” he asked concernedly, crouching in front of his crying boyfriend. “Why are you upset?”

Niall didn’t want to start moaning but he felt something had to be said in order to explain his sudden display of raw emotion.

“I – you – Julia –” he choked out, gulping for breath, and Josh placed a large hand on his shoulder to calm him.

“It’s OK,” he said in a comforting manner although he was clearly not happy that his boyfriend was feeling this way. “Just start from the beginning. What was that about Julia?”

Taking a large breath of air to steady himself the young man began again.

“It’s just, when you and her are together I get so, so fucking jealous and I know it’s silly but I just want to, you know, be with you and not have you spending time with her instead of me because, well, I love you.”

The last three words were barely whispered as he looked up with scared blue eyes, unsure as to what Josh would say in response. They had been together only about a month and although they had bandied the endearing term around quite a bit he’d never been able to say it so seriously before. This time, they both knew he meant it.

“Oh baby,” Josh sighed, leaning his forehead against that of the boy sat opposite him. “I had no idea! I’m so sorry – I should’ve realised you weren’t comfortable with it.”

Lifting up his head so he was face to face with Niall, he spoke the words which made all the pain the younger boy had been feeling simply melt away. “There’s not much I can do about Julie. But just remember, you always come first no matter what, OK? You’re mine and I love you too, more than Julia or anything.”

And with that their lips met in a kiss: slightly wet from the tears still present on the Niall’s cheeks and a little awkward due to their positions on and off the couch but still perfect.

After a minute or so they broke away, both knowing that they had reached a new level in their relationship. Then with a cheeky grin Niall spoke.

“I forgive you. But you know what would really make it up to me?”

Josh cottoned on straight away and immediately began to lift his top over his head to reveal the toned body underneath.

“Anything for you darling,” he winked and they collapsed in a passionate writhing mess on the sofa.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was the first Nosh one shot I ever wrote! I hope you guys liked it, because there's plenty more where that came from (Nosh is my crackship, ok?) ;)


End file.
